One Church, one faith, one Lord

Michael Beasley, who was our suffragan Bishop of Hertford, became the 40^th Bishop of Bath and Wells in 2022. One of his predecessors in that role, the 18^th Bishop, was Thomas Ken, born in 1637 at Berkhampstead. In the church calendar, we commemorate Ken each year on 8^th June, the anniversary of his being committed to the Tower of London in 1688 on a charge of high misdemeanour for refusing to approve the Roman Catholic King James II’s Declaration of Indulgence. Ken had sworn allegiance to King James but felt that broad recognition of Roman Catholicism was a step too far. In fact, he was acquitted of the offence, but when James was deposed in favour of the Protestants William and Mary, he felt that it was so inconsistent to swear allegiance to the new King and Queen, having done so to their predecessor, that he could no longer remain a Bishop.

These days, these differences may seem slight, but at that time these boundaries between different parts of the Church seemed important enough to die for. In fact, after he ceased to be the Bishop of Bath and Wells, he became a lodger with his old university friend, Lord Weymouth, at Longleat. There he devoted himself to the re-unification of the Church of England and to writing hymns. Perhaps one of his best-known verses is this hymn of praise, which I remember singing daily at school assembly:

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow

Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise Him above, you heavenly host

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost